Family Support Worker 1

How have you been able to keep a focus on what matters to people during COVID? 

The health and wellbeing of children is the utmost important factor during Covid. We have stopped a lot of the face to face work including parenting support. My role has been supervising contact. Having children who are looked after by the local authority spend time with their parents should be continued where possible. This has motivated me during these challenging times. 

What have you had to do differently and what made this possible? 

We have had to find other ways for children to keep in contact with their parents. Indirect  contact i.e. video and telephone calls have played a key role in maintaining contact.  

What have you noticed that has been better? 

For families using the service I feel that indirect contact has less of an impact on children. Many are not as distressed when it is time to end the contact as they would be during  face to face. As a staff member this also has less of an impact on stress levels. However, I  think the families still prefer being in the same room.  

How did this make you feel?  

Maintaining contact with children and their families as well as being a happy time, can  also have a detrimental effect as this can often be very upsetting and confusing for  children and young people. In certain circumstances I feel that reducing stress for children  can only be in the child’s best interest.

What have you learned through this?  

There are other ways that families can maintain contact with each other. However, this  might not be suitable for every individual case.